Meet the 8 Scots in Team GB's Olympics athletics team, when they are running and and Paris 2024 medal hopes

Track and field at the Paris Olympics begins with a bang on Friday with one of Team GB’s main medal hopes in action.

Scotland’s Josh Kerr will get his 2024 campaign under way in round one of the 1500 metres at the Stade de France and will be looking to add Olympic gold to the World Championship title he won last year. Kerr’s feud with defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen could be one of the defining rivalries of these Games and the pair have traded barbs in the build-up to Paris.

Kerr will be joined by compatriot Neil Gourley in the 1500m and the pair are among eight Scots in the British team taking part in the athletics programme which is likely to be the jewel in the crown of the Paris Olympics. It would have been nine but for Jake Wightman’s late withdrawal from the 800m due to injury. Here’s when the Scots are in action and the events in which they are competing.

Laura Muir with her silver medal from the women's 1500m at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Neil Gourley

A thoroughly deserved Olympic debut at the age of 29 for the Glasgow stalwart who has had to contend with more than his fair share of bad luck. He won well in the 1500m at the UK Athletics Championships at the end of June to book his place in Paris and he’ll take to the track on Friday for the round one heats which are due to get underway at 10.05am. A torn calf wrecked his chances of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics three years ago and he also missed the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March through injury. He now gets his opportunity on the biggest stage of all. “It’s going to be pretty special, it already kind of is,” he told Scottish Athletics.

Josh Kerr

Team captain, world champion and golden hope. Kerr’s grudge with Jakob Ingebrigtsen adds some spice to these Games and their expected duel in the men’s 1500m final on August 6 should be one to savour. Edinburgh’s Kerr knows there’s more to the race than his personal rivalry with the Norwegian but he is also acutely aware that he will need to beat the Olympic champion to add a gold medal to the world title he won in Budapest last year. “The headlines will be me versus him but I will be racing those other guys on the line too. I’m the best in the world,” Kerr, 26, said. “I'm looking to go to war.” Kerr, who won bronze in Tokyo three years ago, got the better of Ingebrigtsen in their last meeting at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon in May. Round one of the 1500m gets underway on Friday morning, there is a repechage on Saturday (6.15pm), the semi-final is on Sunday (8.10pm) and the final is on Tuesday (7.50pm).

Highlander Megan Keith won bronze for Britain in the women's 10,000m at European Athletics Championships in Rome on June 11, 2024. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Nicole Yeargin

A second Olympic Games for the Scottish-American 400m runner who will be challenging for a place in the relays. Brought up in Maryland but with a mother from Dunfermline, Yeargin has said that her favourite thing about Scotland is a sausage roll. She suffered disappointment at Tokyo 2020 when she was disqualified in the heats of the individual 400m, and placed fifth and sixth respectively in the finals of the women's 4x400m relay and mixed 4x400m relay. Yeargin, 26 has major championship medals from relays at the worlds, Europeans and Commonwealths, and an Olympic gong would complete the set. The mixed relay heats get underway on Friday from 6.10pm with the final on Saturday at 7.55pm. The women’s 4x400m heats begin from 9.40am on August 9, with the final at 8.22pm the following day.

Jemma Reekie

Was desperately unlucky to be pipped for a medal at the Tokyo Olympics when she finished fourth in the 800m, edged out on the line as Americans Athing Mu and Raevyn Rogers took gold and bronze, respectively, and Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson claimed silver. Reekie has spoken of making some “big decisions” since Tokyo and that has included a change of coach. She’s split from Andy Young and is now coached by former Olympic champion Sally Gunnell and her husband Jon Bigg. Reekie, 25, warmed up for Paris by posting a Scottish record in the London Diamond League meeting last month and will be looking to add to the silver medal she won at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow this year. With much of the focus sure to be on Hodgkinson, Reekie will look to make her mark. Round one of the women’s 800m is scheduled for 6.45pm on Friday. There is a repechage on Saturday (10.10am), semis on Sunday (7.35pm) and the final on Monday (8.45pm).

Nicole Yeargin, left, celebrates with Team GB team-mates Laviai Nielsen, Amber Anning and Ama Pipi after winning bronze in the women's 4x400m relay at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in 2023. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Nick Percy

The discus thrower will be in action on Monday, with qualifying scheduled for 9.10am and 10.35am. Percy, 29, was born in Scotland while his father Andrew was working in Glasgow. Elder sister Brogan was born here too and it was her who persuaded Percy to represent Scotland. “I was eligible for Wales through my grandparents and for England through my parents,” he said in an interview with Scottish Athletics. “My mum and dad were of the view that it should be my decision. Brogan, however, got hold of me and stressed: ‘Nick, you were born in Scotland and you are Scottish – that’s the end of it.’” He finished fifth in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 but this is his first Olympics. Won silver at the 2024 British Athletics Championships. The men’s discus final is on Wednesday at 7.25pm.

Laura Muir

A third Olympic Games for one of Scotland’s greatest ever athletes. Muir won 1500m silver at Tokyo 2020, the medal her career deserved, and followed it up with a bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. At 31, she is at her peak and posted a personal best in the Diamond League in Paris last month. Like Reekie, she had a high profile split from long-time mentor Andy Young and in Muir’s case it was even more dramatic given that the pair had worked together for 12 years. As ever, Faith Kipyegon, the world record-holder, will be blocking Muir’s path. The Kenyan is targeting a third consecutive gold medal in the 1500m which gets underway on Tuesday with round one at 9.05am. There is a repechage on Wednesday (11.45am), semi-finals on Thursday (6.35pm) and the final is on Saturday August 10 at 7.25pm.

Britain's Josh Kerr celebrates as he crosses the line ahead of Norwegians Jakob Ingebrigtsen, right, and Narve Gilje Nordas to win the men's 1500m final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on August 23, 2023. (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

Megan Keith

One of two Scots in the women’s 10,000m, Keith will also be flying the flag for the Highlands. Her club, Inverness Harriers, are planning a watch party for the final on Friday August 9 and a huge ‘Good luck Megan’ banner is already on display at the track. Keith, 22, won a stunning bronze in the 10,000m at the European Championships in Rome in June but knows that Paris represent a significant step up. “It is going to be very tough, probably hot conditions and facing the very best in the world,” she said. “But I am looking forward to the huge challenge of the Olympics. I’ve been based in Inverness and been in the sauna a fair bit working there to try and replicate conditions but it is difficult.”

Eilish McColgan

Joining Keith in the women’s 10,000m final will be Eilish McColgan, the star of the show at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham two years ago where she won gold, emulating mum Liz in the process. McColgan, 33, followed that up with silver at the 2022 European Championships in Munich. She broke Paula Radcliffe's 21-year British 10,000m record by 0.23sec with a time of 30:00.86 in California last year. This will be McColgan’s fourth Olympics and she finished ninth in Tokyo three years ago. The women’s 10,000m final at the Stade de France is scheduled for 7.55pm on August 9.